Sierra Club calls together transit advocates

Published in the New Haven Register, Friday, April 24.

By Elizabeth Benton, Register Staff

NEW HAVEN —Mass transit advocates gathered at Union Station Thursday evening to identify ways to catalyze action on slow-moving projects, including the long-discussed New Haven-Hartford-Springfield rail line.

The meeting was one of numerous discussions taking place across the country, facilitated by Washington, D.C.-based transit advocates Transportation for America.

New Haven’s meeting, which drew about a dozen participants, was organized locally by the National Corridors Initiative and the Connecticut Chapter of the Sierra Club.

“Getting mass transit in Connecticut is painfully slow,” said state Rep. David McCluskey, D-West Hartford, pointing to bureaucratic and attitudinal obstacles, including what he described as a long-time focus solely on highways at the state Department of Transportation. That focus has only recently shifted to address mass transit, he said.

The state is “in a better position now than it has ever been” to launch a New Haven-Hartford-Springfield line, he said.

The conversation Thursday mirrored, on a smaller scale, a hearing held last week in New Haven by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn, on transit issues, including the New Haven-Springfield rail line.

State DOT, Metro-North Railroad officials, business leaders and local elected officials all attended that hearing.

A north-south commuter rail line has been a top transit priority for both Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the General Assembly, and the DOT is conducting an environmental assessment.

“It is finally happening. We are moving to the next level on this project,” said Michael Piscitelli, director of the city’s Department of Transportation, Traffic and Parking.

President Barack Obama announced last week that $8 billion in federal stimulus money would be directed to developing a nationwide high-speed rail system.

Meeting participants Thursday discussed ways to secure some of that money for the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield line.

“We’re preaching to the choir here. We’ve got to be leaders,” said Molly McKay, Transportation Chair of the Connecticut Sierra Club.

McKay plans to use input from Thursday’s meeting to draft a letter to Rell pushing for increased transit funding.

With Connecticut facing competition for the stimulus funds, a draft outline of the letter to Rell recommends that Connecticut emphasize the project’s ability to benefit the entire region.

Meeting participants also discussed expansion of bus lines, bike safety, the transportation needs of the elderly, and funding sources for transportation initiatives, including new taxes.

Elizabeth Benton can be reached at 789-5714 or ebenton@nhregister.com.

For more information about these organizations, go to Transportation for America and the Connecticut chapter of the Sierra Club.